2009-01-07 WS CC - Approved - Laserfiche WebLink

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0 0~ ~~~ City Counci12009-01-07 6:30 p.m. ~ ~ ~ ~~ Minutes of Work Session Present were Mayor Capra, Council Members Jeff Paar, Tom Lee, Linda Broussard- Vickers, and Ben Fehrenbacher. Also present were Mark Statz of Bonestroo & Assoc., City Attorney Kurt Glaser and Deb Barnes reporter for the Citizen. 1) Meeting Protocol. Mayor Capra reviewed meeting protocol and reminded members about the temptation to have separate conversations going during the meetings. This makes it difficult to hear, especially for home television viewers, and may prolong the meetings. 2) Chapter 150 Code amendments. City Attorney Glaser reported that final adjustments to the proposed ordinance amending Chapters 150-155 should be complete this week and that the material should be on the next Council agenda for consideration. 3) 2009 Goals. The Council reviewed a draft of possible goals for 2009. Item LB. City Hall addition will be a low priority and deferred until other items such as sale of the old public works site and backage road property has been completed. Item LF. Staff inspector. It was suggested that if a staff project inspector is implemented, that it be through retraining the existing public works employees and not by adding staff at this time. Item ILA. Community signs. The consensus was that the design of community entry signs should be finalized this year and that easements be secured for the various locations. Then the council could consider installing the first sign. Item ILC. Downtown redevelopment. Everyone agreed that the downtown redevelopment should be a high priority goal for this year. It was reported that Beard Group is planning to make a status report to Council in February. Item ILD., 1. Backage Road Project. It was noted that the project is comlete except to make a special assessment to the Sheehy property and to sell the backage road property. The consensus was that the city should not rush to sell the property, as a proposed development to the east in Lino Lakes, if successful would substantially enhance the value of the city property. The city needs to decide on a street name and then plat the property. Item IILD, Plan for reductions in State revenue. The city expects to loose between $20,000 and the entire $60,000+- in Market Value Homestead Credit. Staff believes that the reduction can be absorbed with minor impact. The finance director included a potential $35,000 revenue loss in the budget. The council felt that expense reduction measures may need to be implemented. Deb Barnes of the Citizen asked that her newspaper be considered as the official paper for 2009. The administrator noted that the Citizen's publication rates are about 12% higher than the current paper and that the Citizen, being a bi-weekly paper would provide less flexibility in scheduling hearings where legal notice publication is required. Consensus seemed to be that the City try the Citizen for one year and evaluate again after that. The council discussed ways to improve communication with its citizens. Improvements to the website may be helpful. The city hall message board was